The Division of Scientific Equipment and Instrumentation Services (DSEIS) supports the NIH scientific community with its lab equipment acquisitions and maintenance needs through sales, rental, maintenance, repairs, calibration and custom fabrication services. Full service contracts are available after a thorough evaluation of laboratory equipment and current maintenance requirements.
Utilizing DSEIS’s services could result in a lab’s savings* of up to 47% when purchasing through the New Equipment Sales (NES) Program. An example of the savings (vendor and equipment name is not included) can be seen in the table below. For specifics on pricing and savings on equipment through NES program, please e-mail rental@ors.od.nih.gov.
| Equipment | List Price | GSA Price | DSEIS Price + 8% Surcharge | Savings per Unit |
| Equipment A | $12,600 | $10,287 | $8,037 | $2,845 |
| Additional 2 year service contract | $2,496 | $2,496 | $0 | $2,496 |
| Installation and Training | $937 | $937 | $0 | $937 |
| Shipping | $229 | $229 | $0 | $229 |
| Total Price | $16,262 | $13,949 | $8,037 | (Total Savings) $6,507 |
DSEIS sent out a survey in January 2016. The survey conclusions are summarized below:
- Rent-to-own service is essential to meeting laboratory equipment needs of about 41% of the PIs who answered the survey
- A central service provider that can act as a clearinghouse of laboratory equipment information and provide some services identified in the survey report should help the NIH save a lot of money
- DSEIS will initiate a marketing campaign
- Analytical capability (Big Data) needs to be part of the common competencies of the support staff in order to feed “marketing” with targeted information
- A stable funding mechanism is needed for DSEIS
Benefits of using Maintenance and Repair Unit:
- On campus and no cost for delivery and pickup of equipment
- Equipment lifecycle management
- No need to worry about preventative maintenance (PM) scheduling
- Full service contracts and PM contracts – know what costs are up front (ease of budgeting)
- Online job status/tracking
- Over 135 years of collective experience
Benefits of using New Equipment Sales Program:
- Cost savings for the lab since we have a pre-negotiated rate for these commonly used equipment with the vendor — usually lower than GSA pricing. There are some exceptions.
- Reduced administrative burden. DSEIS would take care of the acquisitions, provide the 3 justifications as needed, etc.
- Pick-up/delivery is included.
Benefits of using the Rental program include:
- DSEIS procures the equipment, prepares justifications, obtains funding and tracks property
- Multiyear agreement not required with outside vendor (FAR regulation)
- Since DSEIS owns equipment, agreement may cross fiscal years
- DSEIS provides maintenance, therefore no maintenance contract required for duration of rent under normal usage
- One person contact for entire lease — frees investigators and lab managers from time consuming documentation and equipment arrangements
- Rental fees are charged under the operating expenses, which frees up capital equipment budget
- Short term rentals for general lab equipment for summer programs and for short-term research needs are available
DSEIS’s ultimate goal is to meet the scientific equipment needs of the NIH Intramural Research Program community proficiently with competitive pricing.
For more information about DSEIS, please visit our website at http://dseis.od.nih.gov.
